Donor Egg IVF
Donor IVF is a process whereby oocytes produced in another women's ovary is fertilised by husbands sperm and transferred in the recipient mothers uterus.
Who Are Candidates To Use Donor Eggs?
We recommend donor IVF for women who have significantly diminished egg quality and low ovarian reserve.
Women with the following conditions or situations are typical candidates for donor eggs :
- + Early menopause or premature ovarian failure (POF)
- + Extremely poor egg quality
- + History of genetic disease
- + Ovaries do not respond to stimulation
- + Hormonal imbalence
- + Over the age of 40
The Process For Selecting An Egg Donor
The egg donor could be a family member, friend, or someone anonymous.The donor has to be married with a child of her own.
Any potential egg donor should be screened as follows :
- + History of birth defects or hereditary diseases
- + Medical and social history
- + Physical examination
- + Psychological screening
- + Testing for sexually transmitted diseases
What Is The Process For The Egg Donor?
The egg donor will experience ovarian stimulation using the medications that a woman would use to stimulate her own egg development during an IVF cycle. Ovulation induction will be done using highly purified hormones namely recombinant FSH+ LH ; Menopur etc.
The Process For The Recipient Couple
Ideally, the recipient’s cycle will be synchronized with the donor’s cycle. This is accomplished by administering a combination of two or three hormonal medications.
The husband will provide a semen sample on the same day that eggs are retrieved from the donor or the sample may be given at an earlier date and frozen in the lab to be used later for IVF. The spermatazoa and eggs are fertilized in a laboratory using in vitro fertilization/ ICSI . After fertilisation the embryos are transferred in the uterus under USG guidance.
A blood test will be performed 2 weeks after transfer to determine if pregnancy has occurred. Most donor recipients will also stay on both progesterone and estrogen support until about 10 weeks into the pregnancy, when the placenta can provide these hormonal needs on its own.
The Success Rate Of Pregnancy Using Donor Eggs
The success rate will vary depending upon age of eggs, retrieval process, quality of semen, and the overall health of the women involved. In most cases, younger eggs are preferable. Up to 50% of women using donor eggs will experience pregnancy.